Stress

Stress is the mental health of the heroes which affects their overall effectiveness in combat and leads to the possible risk of mental breaks gaining an affliction or overcoming the stress to earn a resolve. Maintaining low stress is vital in keeping the party effective in combat and to save gold in removing stress through Town activities.

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As you travel through the dungeons your characters earn stress as they walk. Certain quirks, buffs and resistances can provide protection to this passive stress gain though. Moving backwards also has a high chance to build up stress as well since the party doesn't turn around and moves more slowly, although again certain quirks can improve stress resistance in these cases.

What is very important for preventing stress is maintaining the light level. Between 100 to 75 light level the characters will gain less stress from walking. As the light level gets lower though this benefit quickly fades and the stress gain from walking quickly increases.

Considering the dark and brutal nature of the enemies lurking in the dungeon they can easily cause mental strain towards the hero party. Certain attacks cause stress either through dark magic, disturbing attacks or from critical hits. There are however defenses to these stress attacks through quirks and buffs though. The real danger though is when enemies cause critical hits on a hero(es) since it will cause not only the attacked character to gain stress but also other members of the group. Having chained critical strikes can easily demoralize the entire party and even inflict them all with mental afflictions.

Besides the creeping darkness and lurking enemies there are also other dangers about the dungeons. Certain interactive items can cause (and remove) stress onto the hero that activates it. Some are unavoidable however such as traps or certain quirks that compels a hero to use a interactive item before you have a chance to use the correct item to make it safe. Unseen traps however will be the biggest source of trouble though since they cause a sizable amount damage to health and stress.

In town heroes can be placed in different activities that can remove large amounts of stress along with mental afflictions they have gained. However it is best to remember activities don't always remove all stress and some quirks characters have may limit them to certain activities.

Through the use of camping stress can be lowered through various ways. Hero camping abilities are the main source but providing enough food helps as well. Keep in mind that mental afflictions can hinder camp skills since the heroes will act more irrationally.

Unlike critical hits caused by enemies, any successful Critical Hit caused by a hero will calm some members of the party down, reducing roughly 5 - 10 stress. Some classes carries on certain abilities that can also heal stress, being the Jesters Inspiring Tune, The Crusaders Inspiring Cry and the Leper's Withstand.